The Baltimore Ravens are in the midst of a COVID-19 outbreak. Officially, three players have tested positive for COVID-19 this week with more players and staff members expected to be announced today. Yet, with the extent of the outbreak not even fully known at this point, the NFL still has the Ravens on schedule to battle against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday night.
If a team having multiple cases of an extremely infectious and deadly virus seems like the perfect reason to postpone a football game, you might not be alone. Yet, the league has repeatedly taken the position that Thursday’s game is still going to happen.
Baltimore defensive end Derek Wolfe mocked the NFL’s stance on “player safety” on Twitter Wednesday morning. Tight end Mark Andrews seemed to join in on the disbelief, adding a few emojis to the mix.
— Mark Andrews 8⃣9️⃣ (@Mandrews_81) November 25, 2020
Both Wolfe and Andrews are right to feel odd about this situation. The NFL has been less than transparent about its plans to mitigate the spread of the virus, especially when it comes to rescheduling games. Though there are protocols in place, the league has altered them several times over the course of the season while seemingly moving games around at will rather than by any standardized guidelines.
While the league has pushed back pretty hard on moving what is a marquee Thanksgiving matchup, it has been perfectly fine altering schedules earlier in the season for outbreaks. The Ravens and Steelers certainly know about that all too well, getting their Week 7 game pushed back to Week 8 so the Steelers and Titans could take a bye week early after Tennessee broke the NFL’s protocols and had an outbreak themselves. Baltimore has an incredibly short week and an outbreak to deal with this time around, but yet they aren’t getting the same type of treatment.
The Ravens still need to travel to Pittsburgh, potentially and unknowingly putting sick players in close contact with those that haven’t caught the virus yet. I can’t imagine how frustrating that has to be for the players, the staff, and their respective families to know they’re likely being pushed to play a game — that could be postponed — in the middle of an active outbreak.
